Obama: No Ground Troops in Syria or Iraq

Although Obama will continue to meddle in the Middle East with drone strikes, air bombardment and "special advisors," in Sunday night's speech to the nation he made clear that he doesn't want to commit to major US ground forces in Syria and Iraq.

Any involvement in the Middle East is a terrible thing, but I suspect all current Republican presidential candidates if they were in the White House would be much less reluctant to commit massive amounts of US troops on the ground in Syria and Iraq.

Bottom line: Obama is not good on foreign policy, but I suspect that by the end of 2017, we are going to wish we had Obama foreign policy as opposed to what we will be getting at such time.

Obam was correct when he said in his speech:

We should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria. That is what groups like ISIL want. They cannot defeat us on the battlefield. ISIL fighters were part of the insurgency that we faced in Iraq, but they also know that if we occupy foreign lands they can kill thousands of our troops and drain our resources and use our presence to draw new recruits.

Of course, drone strikes, air bombardment and sending the "special advisers" to the region also allows ISIS to draw new recruits, so it is not clear why Obama doesn't complete the circle, though the next president will likely ignore this argument completely.

  -RW

 UPDATE:

 Trump Responds

Is that all there is? We need a new President - FAST!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015